Camilo Villegas, competing on a sponsor exemption this week, started his round eagle-birdie-birdie before ending it with three straight birdies for a second consecutive 8-under 64 to reach 16-under and take the lead at the World Wide Technology Championship by two shots.
Through 36 holes, the Colombian has hit 26-of-28 fairways and 33-of-36 greens in regulation. His 128 total is a new career-low score for him on the PGA Tour.
“Started really good today, eagle-birdie-birdie kind of set the tone. Made a bogey on 4, three-putt, but then came back, made a good birdie on 6. It was a day where you had to be very patient, pace of play was really, really slow. We were waiting every shot, sometimes it was a little tricky to focus. I kept it pretty chill with my caddie and my playing group and just tried to keep the momentum going on a slow day.
“One of the things just kind of sounds cliche and we always say it and every player says it when they play good, but you’ve just got to stay in the moment, but it’s true. Not getting ahead of yourself, not getting behind, not letting what you just did affect your emotions or what’s coming affect how you can think of the present shot.”
American Matt Kuchar, the 2018 champion, birdied two of his last three holes, Nos. 16 and 18, to post a bogey-free 65 and move into solo second place. He hit all fourteen fairways for the second day in a row and missed only one green in regulation; one of nine players in the field that has hit all 28 fairways through two rounds.
“Good steady golf,” he said of his round. “I left for this trip kind of saying to my family I’m excited about the week, my game’s in good form, I’m looking forward to getting down to Cabo and hopefully playing some good golf. Never know. I’ve certainly said that before and it’s not gone quite as planned. Golf is a fickle creature.
“But I’ve been feeling good for a while about the state of my game. I feel like the work I put in with Chris O’Connell, he’s got me in a direction where I feel really comfortable knowing and feeling like I have some ownership of what I’m doing. Nice when it’s continued. Like I said, when I left I was feeling good, excited about coming and it’s turned out to kind of be holding true.”
Following an opening-round 6-under 66, which included an ace at the par-3 11th hole, Germany’s Stephan Jaeger improved with a 7-under 65 to get into a share of third place at 13-under.
American Justin Suh carded a 65, including a career-high nine birdies, for his share of third place.
74 players had completed their rounds when play was suspended due to darkness. Satoshi Kodaira and Kensei Hirata were at 4-under playing the par-5 18th when play was suspended.
